OAKLAND -- Commuters in the Bay Area were left scrambling for alternate transit options this morning after BART workers announced they are on strike, idling a train system that carries riders on 400,000 trips per weekday.

As the morning commute wore on, traffic on Bay Area highways and bridges experienced severe backups and lines for busses and ferry service began to swell. By 7:30 a.m., the Bay Bridge backup was reaching almost to Walnut Creek on Highway 24, and the San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges were jammed , according to KCBS.

Workers from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 announced at midnight that their contract had expired without a new offer from BART, and then they walked across the street to start picketing at the Lake Merritt BART station.

"We're on strike. We're disappointed BART didn't make a new offer," said Antonette Bryant, president of ATU Local 1555.

Commuters in the Bay Area had mixed reactions to the strike.

Chris Morgan, 38, who works in San Francisco, chalked up the work stoppage as part of the bargaining process. Morgan was among several people in Oakland near the BART station at 19th Street and Broadway waiting for a bus to San Francisco.

"I don't take it personally on either side," Morgan said. "BART has a lot of needs in terms of the facilities and serving the community that I hope they can just come to an agreement that works long term."

Morgan said he gave himself an extra hour Monday morning to get to work. He checked Twitter for updates on Sunday night and finally got the news at 3:30 a.m.

Advertisement

"I'm hoping it'll make my life pretty much unchanged," Morgan said. "I'm glad AC transit is running for anther day, but tomorrow I think I may have a full ferry ride ahead of me."

Alicia Wooley, 35, said she takes BART daily to San Francisco and was worried about alternate ways to make her commute.

"I was going crazy. I didn't know what to do," said Wooley, who is using AC transit as an alternative. "I hope they come to an agreement fast. I understand what they're going through but they have to realize what they're doing to everyone else. They're impacting the whole Bay Area."

Karen O'Connor, 58, of Antioch, left home two hours early this morning to catch the ferry to San Francisco. O'Connor, a city worker, had little sympathy for the striking BART workers, saying "we all have to pay into our pension."

"As it is, they are overpaid," O'Connor said.

Anne Coogan-Gehr, 56, of Pittsburg, typically takes BART to her job in San Francisco. Monday morning she was among dozens of people in Oakland catching an AC Transit bus to San Francisco.

Coogan-Gehr said she supports the striking workers despite the disruption to her commute.

"I'm very supportive of the BART workers in their negotiations for stabilized salaries and health and retirement benefits," Coogan-Gehr said. "I hope that both sides reach a settlement that is acceptable at both sides of the table."

At least one rider wasn't sure of which alternate route to take.

Ama Gee woke up at 4 a.m. in Discovery Bay and drove to Oakland's Lake Merritt looking for a public transit connection to San Francisco's Financial District. Gee usually parks at a BART station and rides in, but this morning he was wandering Grand Avenue, lost and without a plan.

"I have no idea how to get to San Francisco," Gee said. "No one can tell me where to go, what bus to take."

Finally, a fellow a commuter helped to direct him to the morning's first AC Transit transbay bus, which was full of extra riders looking for a BART alternative.

Most of the heavy traffic Monday morning was centered in the East Bay leading to the Bay Bridge.

As of 7:30 a.m., westbound Interstate 580 was backed up to Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland. The same was true for Interstate 80, where cars were slowed to a crawl in the westbound direction almost to Richmond, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Carpool lanes will remain open throughout the day and motorists should be prepared for heavy traffic and hot weather. The CHP advised filling up gas tanks and bringing along plenty of water in case of long waits in traffic.

At the Walnut Creek BART station in the East Bay, buses were lined up early Monday on North California Boulevard taking commuters to the West Oakland BART station, where they will transfer to another shuttle that will take them to Fremont Street between Folsom and Howard streets near the Transbay Terminal in downtown San Francisco.

Passengers are being given round trip tickets and will be able to begin boarding buses for the return trip at 3 p.m. on Howard Street between Folsom and Beale streets. Bus riders must arrive to this loading area by 7 p.m. to get a ride back to West Oakland, where they will transfer to one of four buses headed to Fremont, El Cerrito Del Norte, Walnut Creek and Dublin/Pleasanton.

While many commuters were rushing to take advantage of the free buses, others were calling friends or coworkers to get rides early Monday morning.

Harrison Sen, 24, who works in San Carlos, was waiting for a coworker to pick him up to drive him to their construction job.

"This kind of sucks," he said. "It already takes me two hours to get home. I leave at 4 p.m. and get home around 6 p.m., but it's probably going to be 7 or 8 p.m. tonight."

In Alameda, officials say they are offering additional parking spaces near the city's two ferry terminals to help commuters who wish to travel to San Francisco today.

Deputy City Manager Alex Nguyen said a shuttle service and free valet bicycle parking is available at the Main Street terminal.

Satellite parking and a shuttle service is also available at the city-owned Chuck Corica Golf Complex for commuters who are using the terminal on Bay Farm Island near the Oakland International Airport, Nguyen said.

Alameda police say they will be relaxing parking enforcement near both ferry terminals. But police also say they will still ticket those responsible for flagrant violations, such as blocking driveways, sidewalks and fire hydrants.

Negotiators for BART's two largest employee unions left a bargaining session in Oakland late Sunday, after saying they wanted BART to improve its latest proposal made Saturday. But BART was expecting unions to make a counter proposal.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said state mediators presiding over the talks left after union representatives.

Bryant said, "We didn't walk out. BART told us they had nothing new to give us. There was no reason to stay."

However, she said her union would be ready to resume bargaining if BART made a new offer.

BART carries riders on 400,000 trips per weekday in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Mateo counties -- with nearly half of those trips made between the East Bay and San Francisco.

During negotiations earlier Sunday, Trost said they were prepared to meet all night about workers' pay, and health and pension benefits. The two sides had returned to the bargaining table about 3:30 p.m. Sunday after representatives of Gov. Jerry Brown urged them to resume talks overseen by state mediators.

Brown did not plan to use his authority to call a 60-day cooling off period that could delay a potential strike until Labor Day weekend when the Bay Bridge may be closed to prepare for opening of the new eastern span of the bridge, his spokesman said.

"BART and its labor unions owe the public a swift resolution of their differences," said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor. "All parties should be at the table to do their best to find common ground.'

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on Sunday afternoon had urged BART and its union to keep talking to avoid disruption to passengers and the economy.

Talks had resumed in Caltrans regional headquarters in downtown Oakland at the suggestion of a mediator who said the new setting was more neutral than the previous location a few blocks away at BART headquarters. Media were kept outside the building.

BART officials later said they came up with a new, more generous offer but there were no union leaders around to deliver it to in person.

So BART officials said they emailed the unions an offer that would boost worker pay 8 percent over four years, more than the previous offer of 4 percent over four years. In addition, the offer would reduce the requested employee contribution toward benefits.

In an email Sunday afternoon to union members, the union bargaining team derided the BART offer and suggested workers would not be better off overall because BART's offered pay increase would be offset by requested increases in employee contributions toward health and pension benefits.

BART employees currently pay nothing toward their state pensions and pay $92 per month toward their health insurance -- a blue chip benefit that BART management says is out of line with deals at other agencies.

In the email to members Sunday, the unions said the BART contract offer on Saturday amounted to "an illusory wage increase."

BART officials disagreed.

The current BART labor contract was scheduled to expire at 11:59 p.m. Sunday. Since no deal was reached, train operators, mechanics, station operators, electricians and others said they would finish any work shifts that lasted past midnight, but not show up for the Monday morning commute.

Commuters could have faced even more trouble if AC Transit bus drivers and mechanics strike as well since their contract also expired at 11:59 p.m. Sunday.

But leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192 said Sunday they intend to give at least 24 hours public notice before striking, and they hadn't given that notice Sunday evening as contract negotiations continued with management, said Sharon Cornu, a spokeswoman for Local 192.

At least one regular BART commuter spent Sunday night sleeping on a friend's sofa in San Francisco. Stacey Jaros enjoyed catching up with her friend, but also worried that a protracted strike could leave her stranded for days away from her home and husband in Oakland's Montclair district. Her job at a law firm requires her to be in the office.

"I am generally a supporter of labor but the longer this goes on the more it seems the unions are not negotiating in good faith," she said. "It is frustrating to me that millions of commuters who rely on public transit to commute to jobs are stranded without a voice or vote."